Video warnings about mass shootings aren’t a replacement for gun control

People of a certain age will note the similarities between the “Run, Hide, Fight” video posted recently by the Boston University police, which offers tips on how to survive a mass office shooting, and Cold War civil defense films. The same clipped tone, like a “Dragnet”-era police procedural. The same sense of shock at the implicit assumption that viewers should treat a horrific attack — nuclear war, an Aurora-style mass murder — as an eventuality to prepare for, like a flat tire or power blackout.

“Unfortunately, you need to be prepared for the worst,” warns the narrator of “Run, Hide, Fight,” which was produced in Texas under a Homeland Security grant and is being reposted
by web sites around the country. Has BU gone too far in joining them? Perhaps, in that there is little in the video that isn’t obvious or intuitive — if someone starts shooting, get out fast! If you can’t, then hide. If you can’t do that, then fight back. In the end, more viewers will be alarmed than educated.